26Feb
Choice Homes Inc. has built over 39,000 homes, mostly for first time buyers. The company has now said that it will pay its bills and shut its doors. Apparently the company was doing so well in 2003 that they were considering an IPO. In 2005 the CEO left to start Wall Homes which later filed for bankruptcy.
I have to say that Choice homes is in a unique position to shut their doors peacefully. Other local developers like Kimball Hill Homes has filed for bankruptcy before their developments were even complete. After 50 years in business the family owned business finally threw in the towel. It’s not a good situation for the economy, and it is a really crummy situation for the homeowners. In some cases the infrastructure may not even be fully developed. This leaves HOA’s with some incredible headaches.
25Feb
How about this, the dow hit 1997 levels, and so did sales of existing homes. Sales dropped 5.3% percent in January. This follows a surprise increase in December sales, which were most likely prompted by people taking advantage of low prices. Aside from the normal routine of school starting back and the holidays ending, the January drop appears to be attributable to caution arising from stimulus talk. More buyers are waiting to see what incentives and impacts any legislative initiatives will have on the market.
Median home prices have also fallen to about $170,000. This is down about 26% from the July 2006 high of about $230,000, and down 15% from the 2008 median price of about 200,000. It’s not all bad though; there has been a drop in the number of homes on the market indicating reluctance to sell. Any reductions in market size should put some upward pressure on overall market prices.
There is some good news for Dallas Fort Worth home owners though. Our metro area has held up better than all others except one; Denver. In the same time that nation has seen about a 15% decline in value, DFW has only seen a 4.3% drop.
24Feb
You know that big compound on Berry and 287 that looks like a haunted boarding school. Looks like the city will be teaming up with developers for a multi-million dollar overhaul of the old Masonic Home. Plans are to include 500,000 square feet of retail and restaraunt space. This looks like a very promising development in what has been called an “under-served” part of the city, and I imagine that it should come together very nicely. It certainly varies from the plans announced by Mallick Group in 2006 to develop single family residence there.
As a historical item within the city however, I am sad to see it go. It seems that it would have been a fairly neat opportunity for restoration. The 200 acre facility opened in 1899 to care for orphans and widows. After being functional for over 100 years the Grand Lodge of Texas closed the location when it became un-economic. In 2006 Mallick had announced that they would develop around the existing structures, but I doubt that that will be the case now.
24Feb
Check out the cool stuff going on on Lancaster, courtesy Ology and W&C.
A while back I looked at a place in T&P, and although it seemed very far off at the time, I was intrigued by the idea of re-dev on Lancaster. With Omni, and neat public art going in it certainly seems to be coming along.
To Bad I just couldn’t get over the $300/sf at T&P.
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